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Ask HN: Easiest Engineering Roles

8 points by throwawaytn ↗ HN
Hello HN Friends, I hate to use a throwaway, but unfortunately, it is taboo to want an easy/relaxed job in tech.

I'm a senior engineer, with 15+ years of professional experience, and have worked at a bunch of big tech companies and startups. I can pass most (reasonable) technical interviews. I've been a manager & lead along the way. I've always been considered one of the better engineers everywhere I've worked, and have a strong resume, and plenty of great references (not that it matters).

This isn't necessarily burn-out, I just want to optimize for more time for myself, as my priorities in life are shifting. I don't want to completely give up prestige & challenge in the workplace, and I'd like to keep making as much money as possible. Eng roles can be fun and enjoyable, but I'm disillusioned by the reality of day to day work at most co's and I don't want to optimize for the content of the work anymore.

So many of the companies I've worked at are a total disaster, and the engineering teams are expected to be on call all the time, work crazy hours, and generally are walked all over. The failures of the organization seem to come at my expense, and work output/productivity are not measured, but rather toil, politics, busywork, meetings, etc.

I'm not lazy, per say, I just want to be in a place where I can do, effectively, as little as possible, but not completely give up on challenging/interesting work, and not going to a disfunctional workplace. I'm not looking to exploit anyone, or try to find one of these companies that's so broken, I can just do nothing and no one will notice.

Does such a place exist? Are there any companies in tech that have engineering roles that are more relaxed? Are there specific teams at FAANG or other co's that are known for being easy or relaxed?

Thank you all for your non-judgmental advice and feedback!

17 comments

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mtmail
I think there's a market for remote ops engineers for bootstrapped or single-founder companies. At conferences I keep hearing that such small companies strive, or at least are profitable, but their biggest business risk is a system going down and only one person knowing the ins and outs. At least for those where the founder is also the developer. They don't want to hire somebody full- or even part time either. I had a contract with one such developer to act as ops backup. My "work", and I put that in quotes because most was getting paid for experience, was to make sure I understand their systems, have logins on all, added to their monitoring alert system. Monthly fixed fee. Every couple of months I had to restart a server (everything was redundant already), discuss new systems (but not build them), review new documentation. I could imagine specializing in that with 5-10 clients can be an overall relaxing job.
quickthrower2
My concern with this is are you on 24/7 call. I’d be wanting some say in how these systems are set up at least to minimise that chance. But a bug in code that is not your fault could easily get your pager buzzing.
mtmail
True, never mind many false alerts or alerts where the main developer is already online and looking into.
readonthegoapp
Get with some massive org that is not faang

In healthcare insurance etc

Then just chill

You still have to show up to stupid meetings

Your title will be sql analyst or something

fiftyacorn
That's probably the best example. Some legacy app no one wants to support
tacostakohashi
I hear you.

From what I've seen / experienced, I think middle management at BigCo is closest to what you describe. If you play your cards right and manage things well, it's much more about who you hire and what you communicate than hours worked.

quickthrower2
I am thinking along the same lines, but rather than “as little as possible” I’d like to think of it as pull rather than push.

In other words in weeks I’m feeling like it I can take on a lot of work, and other weeks I don’t. The nature of the work has to be not 100% urgent all the time.

It would require a culture I haven’t seen yet. A one that acknowledges that people might take longer on something because they are not robots and are tired or not fully there. If you employ someone for 5 years (or 5 people for 1 year) there will be spell like this.

rurban
Move to Europe. We don't pay much, don't like engineers that much. But it's not that a horror show, work is interesting and you get a proper life
tkiolp4
He he. Depends. Startup mentality is the same pretty much everywhere (sadly): push feature after feature using “cool” tech.
cosmodisk
Well yes, but then there's tons of jobs with well established institutions that still fairly ok( compared locally) and your work/life balance with 35-40h/week + almost 30 days holidays isn't too bad at all.
wreath
English speaking jobs are mostly in startups and that's the same as what OP seems to be running away from. Otherwise, he would have to learn a new language and all that jazz of moving to another country.
Cocojumbo
Have you considered sales engineering?

If you join a big org and know how to play it, you can make good dough while having a somehow manageable stress level. Depends on the org you joining though.

croo
Banks and government jobs are never in a rush and they are true retirement jobs with slow ass processes and 9 to 5 workdays. Just don't be a contractor as opposed to worthey are they expected to do something.
potta_coffee
I work at a very large company that is not tech (insurance). I'm doing cloud engineering and there are some fun and interesting problems to solve. I'm blown away by how low the expectations are for how much time is put in and how much is accomplished each day - the pace here is just very different than that of a startup or small company. I get more time off than I've ever had and make decent money.
dagw
I can only second this general consensus. Doing tech at large non-tech companies has an entirely different and more laid back pace and stress level than start-ups and tech companies, while the problems that need solving are every bit as fun, challenging and interesting.
gaws
> Doing tech at large non-tech companies

I find this to be the opposite: non-tech companies that don't know what they want often put more work and pressure on the engineers.